


A Proper Boogeyman in Halloweentown

by GretchenSinister



Series: My Top 10 Rise of the Guardians Otherships & Crossovers Fics [2]
Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012), The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-14
Updated: 2019-03-14
Packaged: 2019-11-17 19:20:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18104810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Original Prompt: "Oogie Boogie from nightmare before Christmas and Pitch Black bitching about their respective guardians.Bonus points if both Jacks crash it and become bffs."So it turns out that Pitch doesn’t have a whole lot of sympathy for Oogie Boogie, but he will allow him to get drunk on his bar tab anyway (he’s got his reasons).





	A Proper Boogeyman in Halloweentown

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 9/8/2014.

World’s End was supposed to be neutral ground, Pitch knew, but the thing about neutral ground was that it tended to attract a whole lot of non-neutral beings. Even if it hadn’t been for the hollow eyes and scarecrow-burlap body, Pitch could have easily recognized the figure that walked in as the villain of his story. He (or so Pitch guessed) had the pissed-off expression of someone who was dead in canon, and didn’t stop to greet anybody as he stomped up to the bar.  
  
The bartender passed him a lopsided glass full of something glowing bright green, which he slammed back and the bartender immediately refilled. Pitch sipped his own more normal whiskey–he did come here to relax, after all–and decided to introduce himself. It didn’t do to remain ignorant of someone so agitated, even–or especially–in a neutral zone.  
  
“Rough day?” he asked mildly. “If your story’s good enough, I might even buy the next round.”  
  
The eyeless glare didn’t phase him, and the being turned back to his drink. “A good story!” He growled. “Of course it’s a good story! That’s the problem. Who has more right to exist in that world than I do? No one! But who had to die to wrap up the plot? Me! And it worked too well. When I go back, I can’t stay. I can’t move forward. I can only live in the past, and that’s gotten quite old enough–to drink, I think!”  
  
“Maybe you had better start with the beginning or your name,” Pitch said. He was prepared to muster up some sympathy for whoever this was, or at least pity. Villain courtesy, as far as it went.  
  
“Who cares about the beginning? My name’s Oogie Boogie.” He frowned. “Former Boogeyman of Halloween Town.”  
  
Ah, so that’s what Pitch had been noticing. Not a stray nightmare, but someone else kin to him in some way. “Pitch Black,” he offered with his hand, withholding both his title and a rather curious smile. “So you say that you’re the former boogeyman? I rather…didn’t think the title could be lost. You don’t look as though the title should have been taken from you.” This was true as Pitch said it, but even in general villain sympathy, he thought that Oogie Boogie looked like he should never have held the title at all. He was a very solid, specific sort of creature, more of a bugbear than anything. He lacked the universal quality of darkness, essential to a true boogeyman, a quality, of course, inherent to Pitch himself.  
  
“True! But still, here I am!” He gestured to himself with his drink. “Dead in canon, not coming back, and Halloweentown without a boogeyman! Sure, they have Jack, but Jack is  _not_  a boogeyman. He isn’t the shadow on the moon at night.”  
  
“Was that…in your job description?” Pitch asked as Oogie Boogie finished his drink.  
  
“It was important. I miss it.”  
  
Pitch raised his eyebrows and leaned forward conspiratorially. “I understand  _completely_ ,” Pitch said. “Bartender, put his next drink on my tab, would you?”  
  
***  
  
“I jus’…I jus’ keep thinking that if I go back jus’ one more time, then they’ll finally see they need a boogeyman. Sure, I tried to kill the most popular being there, but he killed me and anyway he’s a skeleton. My being dead should not be a problem.”  
  
“I know, I know,” Pitch said soothingly. Soothingly, and insincerely. He pushed another tilted glass towards Oogie Boogie. One more ought to do it.   
  
Pitch pretended to drink from his own glass, easy enough in the dim bar with a companion who certainly wasn’t pretending. As soon as he had gotten Oogie Boogie talking, he hadn’t had another drop—for as soon as he had gotten Oogie Boogie talking, he had felt even cursory villain sympathy slipping away from him. Oogie had been a boogeyman! Official! In a town dedicated to Halloween! And instead of enjoying all the fear and like-minded companions he could hope for, he had thrown it all away on problems with a) murder and possibly b) gambling, though Pitch wasn’t quite sure about the second. Oogie did seem to mention it a lot though, and it certainly wasn’t what being a boogeyman was all about.   
  
But Pitch knew what being a boogeyman was all about, and now he knew about a realm with a vacancy.  
  
All he needed was an original denizen to take him there.  
  
“You unnerstand, don’t you, Pitch? You unnerstand…”  
  
“Of course I do,” said Pitch.  
  
“You’re a good listener, you know that? I bet it’s how you unnerstand lots of things.”  
  
Pitch only nodded.  
  
“They don’ wanna listen to me anymore, but I bet they’d listen to you, and since you unnerstand, they’d unnerstand after.”  
  
“I’d love to talk to them.” Pitch shrugged. “But I’ll only be able to get to your world if you take me. We’ll probably have to go tomorrow.”  
  
“Wha! No, no…gotta be night, everyone’s out then…come on, we gotta go.”  
  
“Well…”  
  
“You think I’m gonna take no for an answer? No! Not from anybody, not from them, that’s why I’m not taking one from you now! Come on!” He grabbed Pitch’s arm with his burlap hand, and Pitch courteously remained corporeal. “You’re gonna talk to them, and you’re gonna explain how things are! They need a boogeyman in Halloweentown!”  
  
“All right! All right,” Pitch said to the burlap shoulder, finally allowing his curious smile to show. “I’ll explain things to them. I’ll explain exactly why they need a proper boogeyman in Halloweentown.”

**Author's Note:**

> Comments from Tumblr:
> 
> bowlingforgerbils reblogged this from gretchensinister and added: This crossover is awesome, not the least of which because although I love Oogie Boogie, he can’t hold a candle to Pitch. ;)
> 
> (Also, SO much crossover potential here.


End file.
